Heroines of Comic Books and Literature: Portrayals in Popular Culture

by Maja Bajac-Carter (Editor), Norma Jones (Editor), Bob Batchelor (Editor), Sandra J. Lindow (Contribution by), Tricia Clasen (Contribution by)

Overview

Despite the growing importance of heroines across literary culture—and sales figures that demonstrate both young adult and adult females are reading about heroines in droves, particularly in graphic novels, comic books, and YA literature—few scholarly collections have examined the complex relationships between the representations of heroines and the changing societal roles for both women and men.

In Heroines of Comic Books and Literature: Portrayals in Popular Culture, editors Maja Bajac-Carter, Norma Jones, and Bob Batchelor have selected essays by award-winning contributors that offer a variety of perspectives on the representations of heroines in today’s society. Focused on printed media, this collection looks at heroic women depicted in literature, graphic novels, manga, and comic books. Addressing heroines from such sources as the Marvel and DC comic universes, manga, and the Twilight novels, contributors go beyond the account of women as mothers, wives, warriors, goddesses, and damsels in distress.

These engaging and important essays situate heroines within culture, revealing them as tough and self-sufficient females who often break the bounds of gender expectations in places readers may not expect. Analyzing how women are and have been represented in print, this companion volume to Heroines of Film and Television will appeal to scholars of literature, rhetoric, and media as well as to broader audiences that are interested in portrayals of women in popular culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442231474
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/14/2014
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Maja Bajac-Carter is a doctoral candidate in Communication Studies at Kent State University. Her research focuses on gender, identity, and media studies. She is a contributor to We Are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life. .. and Always Has (2014).

Norma Jones has a PhD in communication and information from Kent State University. She is an editor of Rowman & Littlefield's Sports Icons and Issues in Popular Culture book series and is coeditor of Aging Heroes: Growing Old in Popular Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).

Bob Batchelor teaches in the Media, Journalism & Film department at Miami University and is the founding editor of the Popular Culture Studies Journal. Batchelor edits the Contemporary American Literature and Cultural History of Television book series for Rowman & Littlefield. Among his books are John Updike: A Critical Biography (2013), Gatsby: The Cultural History of the Great American Novel (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), and Mad Men: A Cultural History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

I. Literature

Chapter 1: To Heck with the Village: Fantastic Heroines, Journey and Return, Sandra J. Lindow
Chapter 2: From Duckling to Swan: What Makes a Twilight Heroine Strong, Tricia Clasen
Chapter 3: Salem’s Daughters: Witchcraft, Justice, and the Heroine in Popular Culture, Lauren Lemley
Chapter 4: Heroine: Christina of Markyate, K. A. Laity
Chapter 5: The Bohemian Gypsy, Another Body to Sell: Deciphering Esmeralda in Popular Culture, Adina Schneeweis
Chapter 6: Writing Women in War: Speaking Through, About, And For Female Soldiers in Iraq, Christina M. Smith

II. Exotic, Foreign, Familiar, and Queer

Chapter 7: The Borderland Construction of Latin American and Latina Heroines in Contemporary Visual Media, Mauricio Espinoza
Chapter 8: Janissary: An Orientalist Heroine Or a Role Model For Muslim Women?, Itir Erhart & Hande Eslen-Ziya
Chapter 9: Representations of Motherhood in X-men, Christopher Paul Wagenheim
Chapter 10: Negotiating Life Spaces: How Marriage Marginalized Storm, Anita McDaniel
Chapter 11: The Mother of All Superheroes: Idealization of Femininity in Wonder Woman, Sharon Zechowski & Caryn E. Neumann
Chapter 12: Wonder Woman: Lesbian or Dyke? Paradise Island as a Woman’s Community, Trina Robbins
Chapter 13: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorists to Crimson Caped Crusaders: How Folk and Mainstream Lesbian Heroes Queer Cultural Space, April Jo Murphy

III. Contemporary American Graphic Novels/Comics

Chapter 14: Punching Holes in the Sky: Carol Danvers and the Potential of Superheroinism, Nathan Miczo
Chapter 15: Jumping Rope Naked: John Byrne, Metafiction, and the Comics Code, Roy Cook
Chapter 16: Invisible, Tiny, and Distant: The First Female Superheroes of the Marvel Age of Comics, Joseph Darowski
Chapter 17: Heroines Aplenty, but None My Mother Would Know: Marvel’s Lack of An Iconic Superheroine , T. Keith Edmunds
Chapter 18: Liminality and Capitalism in Spider-Woman and Wonder Woman, or: How to Make Stronger (i.e. male) Two Super Powerful Women, Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns
Chapter 19: Empowerment as Transgression: The Rise and Fall of The Black Cat in Kevin Smith’s The Evil That Men Do, Michael R. Kramer
Index
About the Editors and Contributors

Editorial Reviews

The release of Heroines of Comic Books and Literature...could not have been timelier.... The well-organized thought processes throughout should prove to be refreshing to the comic book fan, even though it reveals some uneasy, though necessary truths, of these heroine portrayals.... Heroines of Comic Books and Literature boasts nineteen succinct chapters by a collection of authors who aptly command authority in their respective areas of expertise. A notable inclusion of comic artist, writer, and Will Eisner Hall of Fame inductee Trina Robbins adds panache to an already credible list of educators and scholars. The variety of case studies and methodologies will certainly satisfy those who want more from their popular culture analysis. Collections like this can potentially fall into the trap of stylistic inconsistency, but the editors may be credited for a book filled with direct, punchy writing that provokes the reader to want more from each chapter. This book is perhaps best described as an academic’s Jezebel — it approaches popular culture in a manner that welcomes discussions and is appropriately critical, well researched, even-tempered, and, is still, wildly passionate.

Journal of American Culture

The release of Heroines of Comic Books and Literature...could not have been timelier.... The well-organized thought processes throughout should prove to be refreshing to the comic book fan, even though it reveals some uneasy, though necessary truths, of these heroine portrayals.... Heroines of Comic Books and Literature boasts nineteen succinct chapters by a collection of authors who aptly command authority in their respective areas of expertise. A notable inclusion of comic artist, writer, and Will Eisner Hall of Fame inductee Trina Robbins adds panache to an already credible list of educators and scholars. The variety of case studies and methodologies will certainly satisfy those who want more from their popular culture analysis. Collections like this can potentially fall into the trap of stylistic inconsistency, but the editors may be credited for a book filled with direct, punchy writing that provokes the reader to want more from each chapter. This book is perhaps best described as an academic's Jezebel -- it approaches popular culture in a manner that welcomes discussions and is appropriately critical, well researched, even-tempered, and, is still, wildly passionate.

From the Publisher